Was it just my hall?

by freedom96 28 Replies latest jw friends

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  freedom96

  No blondie, they had plenty of elders. Just fanatical about setting the "right example."

  If one missed the meeting in that hall, you knew it. Everyone did. It was so weird. I remember people talking in the hall about vacation plans, and some would so sincerely ask what were they going to do about missing the meetings while they were gone.

  I remember one person saying that there was no way to attend a meeting while on their cruise, so their family was going to conduct its own meeting in their room. How sad is that??
• 

  Special K

  Its hard to think about all the time spent in going to meetings and going in service.

  It consumes such a large chunk of one's life.

  But what I feel really in awe about concerning your post ... is that today, your parents aren't Jehovahs Witnesses anymore.

  Are you serious? After all that forced regimented inflexible fanatically lording everybody in the family that couldn't ever miss a meeting and now they are no longer J.W.s.. Now that is AMAZING.

  I do find your account of how it was in your kingdom hall to the extreme. They sound like the Congregation from Hell to me.

  I'm glad I was not in that congregation.. My abusive controlling father was bad enough. He would have LOVED IT THERE!!

  Special K
• 

  freedom96

  Yes, special k-

  It absolutely stuns me to this day to think my parents are not witnesses anymore. I would have bet my life back then that my parents would always be witnesses.

  One day here I will tell what they are up to.
• 

  jws

  That sounds like my parents, almost exactly. We didn't have Saturday meetings, but I remember a time or two of sitting through the Watchtower more than once (don't remember why). My parents weren't so quick to bring us to the elders though. Perhaps they dealt with things internally to avoid a bad reputation for themselves.

  But KH personalities do differ, depending on the state, social position of elders, and a ton of other factors. My first hall was urban and blue collar with lots of nice, friendly people (of course I was very young, how would I know?). My second was blue-collar suburbs with a bunch of hard-asses for elders and just generally unfriendly people. My last hall was a mixture of blue and white collar elders and a much friendlier environment.

  The second hall was the worst for strictness. Maybe it was the blue-collar elders excercising their chance at power and control and doing it poorly. Maybe it's because it was the 70's and Armageddon was going to happen. But it sucked the most.
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  Francois

  Living with my superelder uncle, I knew the straight up and skinny on all the other elders in the entire tri-state area. They could "set an example" in public until they were blue in the face for all I cared. I knew each and every flaw every one of them had and didn't give a rat's fanny when one of them had something to say to me. They gave up when I had something pithy to say back to them. You know what pith ith don't you?

  Frank
• 

  justhuman

  Also i had simillar experience
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  bebu

  Freed,

  Great post. Also, I'm awed by the fact that your parents are both out. How'd that happen?? Was it information, a process of growing emptiness, or something else? I'm curious. Maybe you should put it on another thread if the answer's too long...

  bebu
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  dobby

  This sounds like all of the FIVE congregations I attended and my family as well. Things do differ from hall to hall, family to family.

  This reminds me of this time my husband and I were going camping over a long weekend. We invited this elder and his wife -they were close to our age - my husband was a ministerial servant at the time. They asked us what were our plans for the meeting on Sunday. I remember bursting out laughing and asking them what were they talking about, we were going to be camping so we hadn't planned on going to the meeting. They were so shocked and said they would only come with us if they could atend the meeting. Well we didn't go camping that weekend - we cancelled our plans and later went camping alone so we didn't have to be pressured to go to the meeing. JEEZ!
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  obiwan

  Any infraction, no matter how trivial, had to be brought before the elders. One time I lied about my homework being done in order to go on a small vacation. It was not done, and I was brought before the elders.
  

  Sounds like something Ned Flanders would do. Always pestering Rev. Lovejoy.
• 

  teejay

  Freedom,
  
  I had a very similar upbringing, but I can't blame it on the elders or any hall I was in. It was my mom. She was hard-core to her bones and has only softened within the past three or four years.
  
  Everything was either black or white / good or bad with her. She believed it all and passed that depth of belief on to me.